Boulos group plans light truck assembly

The tidal waves of Nigeria’s one-year-old auto policy are spreading very fast all over the country with a stop-over at the gate of the 50-year old Boulos Nigeria Enterprises Limited.

Having commenced business of importation of Suzuki brand of motorcycles and outboard motors engine, purolite brand of fuel filters and spare parts from Japan, and later establishing the first motorcycle assembly plant in the country in 1969 and assembly plant for outboard motors in 1978, Boulos is on the march again. This time around, it is moving into the manufacture of a modest one-ton four wheelers that will cater for the needs of multiple business applications.

To this end, BEL will soon start the assembly of Piaggio Porter 4 wheeler compact truck 1.5 ton which the company is optimistic would provide  the needed solution to fleet operators engaged in logistics and  delivers services to SMEs and other conglomerates and at the same time providing job opportunities to the Nigerians.

Boulos is the only tricycle company in Nigeria with well established assembly plant and  gaseous emission equipment machinery for tricycle when compared to competition.Briefing motoring journalists during a visit by Aminu Jalal, director-general, National Automotive Council (NAC) to the state-of-the-art  assembly plant equipped with all the trappings of a modern four-wheel assembly tools and machinery, in Ogba, Lagos, the company top management said the essence of NAC’s official’s visit was to intimate him of its readiness to commence the local manufacturing of modest capacity 1-1.5 ton truck in line with the ongoing automotive policy trust of the federal government..

At the time of filing this report, Julian Hardy, the general manager, said there is a memorandum of intent from Piaggio in Italy with Boulos Enterprises Limited for the establishment of SKD assembly. According to him, “We have a full contract coming from them as well which was at the initial stage and we have been to Italy twice to have a meeting with them so as to fine tune the agreement for setting up the SKD plant phase two which is the basics. We will start with that.

“There is a feasibility going on in Italy at the moment that will fast-track the entire bilateral agreement and set the ball rolling and from there we would then move on to full SKD.

Boulos said it will move to the next phase which will see the company bring in automotive paint cabins so that it can carry out paint works to the customers’ preferred colours on site here within the factory. It will take care of full assembly that include fixing the engine blocks, suspension systems, wheels and cab interior and all of them will be assembled in Nigeria.BEL will start the SKD by the first quarter of next year, and move onto the second wave of the SKD which will be in another 12 months. It anticipates full CKD in another two years with close monitoring of its assembly processes and market dynamics.

As the general manager put it, “We have the 511cc diesel single cylinder and the other one is 686cc two cylinder diesel. Already, we have a full network of mechanic parts distributors already set up for our diesel tricycles which is over 1,000 units of the cargo tricycle throughout Nigeria. For instance, Cadbury have about 400 units of this and we maintain all of these through series of mechanics throughout the country.

According to him, Boulos will not only train, but also supervise its mechanics in genuine Piaggio parts with a stock pile of about $30million worth of spare parts inventory on site and we distribute throughout the whole of Nigeria on a monthly basis.

Hardy also added that Boulos has the capacity to roll out initial 200 units per month under the new SKD plant that is being set up. Under this business relationship, the establishment would periodically send its technical staff to Italy to receive training and Piaggio will also send their technical staff to train the locals as well as supervise the local assembly procedure and make inputs where necessary.

This will be captured under the technical agreement with Piaggio of Italy under an understanding of reciprocity between the duos. “They have already sent the technical details and other vital information that we need to get started and we are presently at an advanced position with them,” he disclosed.

Responding on sources of funding, Hardy stated that at the moment the managing director have had various meetings with some institutions about funding. So far, “We have funded everything ourselves, we have made a big investment ourselves. But to move to the next level of CKD, we would need assistance for funding so as to enable us set up the overhead conveyor lines. But at the moment, for the initial SKD, we funded the entire operations ourselves,” the general manager said.

On his part, Boulos A.G. Boulos assured that, the investment will attract a lot of appetite from its financial partners to fund the project and as such, there would be no problem with the issue of short or long-term funding to carry out the assembly operations.

On its expectations from government through the National Automotive Council (NAC), the Boulos Enterprises chief executive said the company would require government support because this is a project that would bring a lot of added value to Nigeria, the company is Nigeria, creating a lots of jobs.

“We deliver on our promise and our biggest value is our staff, our local Nigerian staff and you can see the enthusiasm. Robert Ugbaja, our chairman who has spent over 40 years with the company is a Nigerian,” he concluded.

MIKE OCHONMA